ST2009: Seven Degrees of Demolition

Seven Degrees Of Demolition

Uno:

He’s almost asleep at his console after busy night; he had some mighty fine scotch without anyone breathing at his neck and yelling at him for being drunk while on duty. Well, not that this was happening all that much – but better be safe than sorry, right? Being stuck at Delta Vega for six months was enough and no need to repeat it – and he’s quite sure that it would be repeated (if Admiral Archer had any word in it), if he was caught drunk on duty. And be forced to leave this silver beauty, the Enterprise? Unthinkable!

As he’s sprawled upon the console, the comm right next to his head beeps. It’s terribly annoying sound but he forces the irritation down, as it’s the Captain asking to be beamed up. His voice is strangely raspy – but hey, the planet is not that hot, so it’s possible he just got sore-throat. Captain’s allergies and staff are legendary on this ship. Scotty almost doesn’t wait for the “energize” and has Kirk on board.

The very first thing he thinks as he lays his eyes on Captain is that the Captain obviously got in some brawl (where else do you get these nice black eyes after all) and then probably had some fun, since he’s carrying himself a little tensely and is limping. He flashes him a small smile, and that sends tiny bits of envy in Scotty’s gut. Definitely fun night then. When Captain leaves the transporter room, all he can think about (and say aloud) is: “Well, looks like someone had a wee of a night…”

The doors close and he mumbles a curse. Bloody hells, that wasn’t very respectful towards the Captain – but the man didn’t say anything, probably found it funny, so why to bother about it?

Secondo:

When the Captain arrived to his shift, it took only very, very short time to notice that something is not completely alright with his – head uncharacteristically bowed down, he’s limping – although obviously attempting to hide it (not that he really manages it). Uhura hisses something at him acidly when he walks around, which makes him wince. That’s when Hikaru elbows him and rolls his eyes. “Probably having hangover and Uhura’s voice is not the best for it,” he whispers to him.

Part of him is feeling a bit weird but he reciprocates Hikaru’s eyeroll – if for nothing else, then because friends usually do that.

Terzo:

‘Whoring around, Captain?’ rang in Uhura’s head. It’s almost like the first time they meet – he’s absolutely impossible and part of her wonders what the hell was the HQ thinking when they gave him the flagship.

She continues to try to stare some sense into him throughout the shift – he’s even more fidgety than usual, more agitated than usual.

When he starts telling them about the last night, she was never so happy for Spock interrupting. As he limped from the bridge, she though only one short sentence.

“Suits you right.”

Quatro:

It takes several days before Kirk managed to hunt Sulu down. Because let’s face it – Hikaru, just like every other person, was so not interested in Captain’s sex life. If he wanted to hear about sex, he would just browse the extranet and find some (that reminded him to check that porn site one guy from Astrophysics recommended to him just few days ago).

So when Kirk attempts to talk to him “you know, about the night…”, he quickly excuses himself and say he’s too busy in botany labs.

No one needs to know that the experiment he said he needed to supervise is actually just replanting several plants and the rest of his time is given to watching porn.

Yeah. That chick in Where No Man Has Cum Before had absolutely amazing rack.

Quinto (pun unintended!)

Spock had to fight down the urge to scowl at his Captain. Not only he unprofessionally arrived several minutes late to his first shift after his day of shore leave, he also didn’t felt it necessary to remove any signs of his in no doubt indecent behaviour of previous night. If he remembered correctly that kind of bruising Captain’s neck was showing was referred as ‘hickey’ by Terrans.

Captain himself seemed to be increasingly agitated and obviously had problems with focusing on his work. Spock threw a glance at him time to time, feeling a wave of irritation at the Captain’s antics. And then, Uhura told him about series of in-coming and out-coming transmissions between Captain and Admiral Pike and some other people – and all of sudden, Captain is once again focused and surprisingly calm.

He is content. The work is continuing as it should and Captain is no longer attempting to drag him in conversation about his shore leave.

It still didn’t prepare him or anyone else in that matter that in a very short time, there will be very quick and very abrupt change of command.

Sesto:

“Oh my god…”

“Bozhe moj!”

“How fascinating…”

“…”

“Holy cow!”

The rest of what remained from original Enterprise Command Crew was hunched together around Uhura’s console – Spock, Uhura herself, Sulu, Chekov and Scotty, whom they called from the Engineering. ‘The Hero Comes Out – I Have Been Raped’ flashed on the console, making every single one of them replay the days which preceded Captain’s relieving of duty.

Can’t you keep this out of duty, Captain?”

I believe that your personal affairs should remain exactly that – personal.

I’m sorry – but there is this experiment we have running at botany labs…

Excuse me, Keptin, but I have several things to do at the astrolabs…

Me sorry, Captain, but I’m a wee busy here…

“Oh my god, what have we done?” breathes Uhura and the rest of them can’t do anything but to agree with her.

There is even a video feed of the press conference about this; Captain spending about ninety minutes (“eighty-seven point nine minutes to be precise”) by answering questions of journalists, never looking directly into the camera; he actually seemed quite uncomfortable to be there.

And then the final question and answer came. “If not for my friends Leonard and Christopher, I wouldn’t report it.” It’s like a slap to their faces – hard, but well-deserved. “Just one thing troubles me – how many people are there, hiding they were hurt, because no one is willing to step from their high horses and help them?”

That question hangs in the air, even as the video feed ends and they start attempting to call Captain’s number to tell him they are sorry.

None of their calls is received or returned, and when they try to call again, computer voice informs them they do not have permission to call this number. It’s like a kick in the stomach when they realize that just like they once blocked Kirk, Kirk now blocked all of them in return.

When they manage to get the shore leave on Earth few days later, they immediately aim towards the block they know his flat is. Security refuses to let them closer, and the things are slowly getting out of hand when Uhura noticed the familiar blonde head in opened window.

“Kirk!” she shouts. “Let go of me!” she snarls at the security guy who’s holding her back from dashing to the building.

“Sorry, ma’am, but unless Captain’s orders about “do not disturb, especially if it’s Enterprise crew” did change during the last few minutes, you are not to be allowed any further.”

“Then call him, ask him about that,” pleads Chekov, his youthful face full of sorrow. The security flips his comm open. “Captain? Johnson speaking. Orders still the same?”

“Yes, Johnson,” sounds in reply. “And they won’t change.” The connection closes right when Hikaru attempts to steal the comm.

The rest of their shore leave is spent in brig for public nuisance and attempt at house-breaking. They didn’t get closer than fifty point five metres from Kirk’s house.

Settimo:

They never managed to contact Captain Kirk, even if he returned to active duty. His new ship, USS Saratoga is stationed on the other side of Federation space and if they come closer than fifty light years from each other, the communication relays start mysteriously malfunction and they are unable to contact each other properly.

To everyone’s surprise all of them remained stationed on Enterprise, even if now they are reffered as the crew. Not the crew which is so damn awesome. It’s the crew which let their Captain down, and every time someone mentions the crew, every single Enterprise crew member feels a wave of shame rising inside of them. The new captain, Captain Morrick, is exact opposite of Kirk – following protocol as if it was some kind of religion, mostly closed off instead of open as Kirk used to be. He’s staying outside the crew, watching them for any sign of disrespect and they know they are not trusted.

They are nearly at the end of their first five year mission when there is an emergency call from Saratoga. “Open channels,” says Captain Morrick, nodding to Uhura, overlooking the sudden agitation of the bridge crew.

The video feed shows Captain Kirk, there is chaos all around him, only he stands in the centre of it all, seemingly in heavenly peace. “This is Captain Kirk of USS Saratoga. Ship…” the signal is weakening rapidly, part of the message lost. “… unknown attacker… emergency… computer… not working… evacuation.”

They warp to the last known coordinates of Saratoga at full speed, Scotty managing to wring every last bit of energy out of warp core, while Sulu and Chekov navigate the shortest route there. They arrive just in time to see a small fleet of emergency shuttles leave the ship and catch short transmission between the ship and one of the shuttles before Saratoga flies straight into the attacker, both ships destroyed in process.

There is complete silence at the bridge of Enterprise for a moment, before a quiet sob breaks it. Hikaru slowly moves his head. Chekov’s cheeks are wet with traces of tears.

“I newer told him I vas sorry,” he says.

And with a pang they all realize that none of them ever will.